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Bit of fun with an HID

Went camping on Urupukpuka Island over Xmas for two weeks and got to play with my new lights.
One evening I had to take my daughter up the hill to the toilets and while waiting for her outside some smart **** on a yacht in the harbour thought it funny to pin me with a spotlight.
Well I gave him a couple of minutes with his little yellow halogen bulb and then got ticked off! Now it just happened I was carrying my 65w HID with me so I held it pointing into the ground and turned it on. That meant he had another two minutes to turn off his light while mine warmed up.
I could hear him and his mates laughing and probably saying how good his light was. (Easy 400m ge)

No I would never normally shine this light near anyone but these people seemed to think it amusing.

I swung the light up and briefly flooded his boat in a brilliant white light. You could hear the expletives as they turned away and shielded their eyes. He instantly turned off his light as the whole boats party atmosphere died. Needless to say we weren’t hassled by him again.
Funny letting friends use it, they were blown away. People on their moorings were shinning lights on the hills (150m ge) away and we’d turn on the HID from the opposite side of the bay (550m ge) and drown out their lights.
After a week on the island I came to the conclusion that quite frankly the hid was too bright to be of any practical use. Too bright to navigate into the bay to anchor. Too bright to check the boats on their moorings (200m ge). And it’s only 65W, what on earth do you guys do with your “real” HID’s? In fact even the beloved TK 35 had to be used on moderate power. Wish I’d had it back when I was opossum hunting. (legal here.)
The only time the HID was useable was for proving I had the brightest torch they’d ever seen. Everyone loved the light, just need to find a use for it.
Best play light of the week was the C78 Flood-to-Throw Cree Q3-WC. This is not the same as the lenser. With a lithium battery it is a killer. Checking the boats at 200m with a single aa size torch was amazing. Definitely the queen of the camp. And it’s a “junk light”. I love it.

Re: Bit of fun with an HID

I think by the look of the beamshots they are quite comparable. I really like the light although it would be nice if it had a better reflector so it would achieve like 50% more throw. But i can imagine them being shocked in that boat :d

Re: Bit of fun with an HID

What really surprised me was how bright it was.
Previously I'd tested it on dark green trees, then on a rainy night with poor visibility.
But to suddenly stand up above the boat on a perfect clear night and shine onto a highly reflective polished white yacht hull surrounded by shallow clear reflective water totally took me by surprise.

It's made me think about what should be looked at to gauge a light; I guess that’s why it looks impressive when people test by shining onto an apartment block.

Re: Bit of fun with an HID

You've gotta be kidding, I have the 65W as well and it's only in the low 200k cd range and that's peak candlepower. It's still in the lower rung of lowest throwing HIDs around.

Shining at trees, you need about 1 million cd at 400m to get a kick out of it.

No arguement there. If you look at my beamshots at 400m on trees theyre quite unremarkable (unless compared to the old trusty maglite or 12V halogen bulb!!) but....
look at shots on the yacht at 450m in the rain and it's a different story. The bright white shiny reflective yacht on a clear night at 400m (ge) was very impressive.

And remembering this is a torch not a spotlight.

From the other side of the bay we were easily drowning smaller lights from 550m. I didn't say it was briliantly bright. Just that we drowned out thier lights.

Re: Bit of fun with an HID

Originally Posted by subiya

No arguement there. If you look at my beamshots at 400m on trees theyre quite unremarkable (unless compared to the old trusty maglite or 12V halogen bulb!!) but....
look at shots on the yacht at 450m in the rain and it's a different story. The bright white shiny reflective yacht on a clear night at 400m (ge) was very impressive.
From the other side of the bay we were easily drowning smaller lights from 550m. I didn't say it was briliantly bright. Just that we drowned out thier lights.